Mumzworld secures its largest funding round to date

Mumzworld, one of the Middle East North Africa (MENA) leading ecommerce players dedicated to mothers, babies and children, today announced it has raised its fifth and largest round of funding to date to pursue its regional growth plans.

Founded by successful entrepreneurs and mothers Mona Ataya and Leena Khalil, in October 2011, mumzworld.com, a highly interactive marketplace, addresses the challenges mothers in the region face in sourcing products for their children and in obtaining access to information about these products. Working with over 2,700 retailers, distributors, manufacturers, and brands in the region and internationally, Mumzworld.com, offers over 200,000 products to choose from of which 20,000 products are sold exclusively on the site.

The funding round was led by Swicorp and Wamda. Swicorp, an independent advisory and investment firm with a focus on the Middle East and North Africa region, led a syndicate of new powerhouse investors including a landmark investment by Tamer Group, a leading healthcare, beauty care, prestige products, and FMCG company in the Middle East.

The continued investment from Wamda and six other existing regional investors including Precinct Capital, WSB Holding, Riverbank Technologies and Saned, demonstrates their strong confidence in the company’s growth trajectory.

Khaled Talhouni, partner at Wamda added: “We are very excited to be co-leading this latest round of investment at Mumzworld as part of our strategy to continuously back exponential growth companies through multiple rounds of financing. As the company continues to dominate this vertical space for mother and child, Wamda investment is a natural byproduct.”

Mohammed Tamer, partner and CEO of Tamer Group said: “Tamer group is enthusiastic about this investment and extends its full support to Mumzworld in providing a better shopping experience for Saudi mothers, allowing them to buy all their needs, delivered to their doorsteps wherever they live in the Kingdom.”

Alongside Swicorp and Tamer Group, other new investors include prominent Saudi groups operating in adjacent segments and at the forefront of multiple mother and child categories with both manufacturing and distribution capacities. In addition to the financial investment, Mumzworld is building long-term strategic partnerships that will enable it to strengthen its local operations in Saudi Arabia and grow exponentially in this market where it already serves mothers inside and outside the three main cities.

The newly acquired funds will add tangible value to Mumzworld’s growth trajectory as it continues to rapidly scale its operations across key growth markets like Saudi Arabia and North Africa.

Mumzworld is also in advanced stages with two additional investors who are willing to join in topping up this already large round by early Q2 2018.

Mona Ataya, founder and CEO of Mumzworld said: “We founded Mumzworld.com in 2011 pioneering the vertical space for mother, baby, and child. Today we serve global brands offering them fast and cost-effective access to the widest, most loyal and targeted consumer base. Our number one priority for the coming two years is to build, scale and consolidate an indisputable position of category leader in Saudi Arabia, the region’s largest and most lucrative market. We are thrilled to welcome our new strategic partners such as Tamer Group. We look forward to working with all our partners and leverage their capabilities in distribution and logistics to serve mums, across the GCC, with superior speed and unique mother centric services, creating an unmatchable customer experience. Our strong and supportive investor base will help us further anchor our advantages and grow deeper and faster across the MENA region.”

Karim Souid, head of the Next Economy Initiative for Swicorp concluded: “Mumzworld is at the intersection of the high-growth regional ecommerce market with the attractive segment of mother, baby and child products. In an overall ecommerce space dominated by Amazon and the likes, we believe leading full-service and consumer-centric vertical players like Mumzworld have embedded defensibility and a strong potential to grow and scale. This is evidenced by Mumzworld’s impressive growth and attractive unit economics. We look forward to working with a world-class team to build the dominant mother, baby and child e-retailer in MENA and beyond.”